this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
35 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy Guides

16784 readers
61 users here now

In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.


You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:

Learn more...


Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!

Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!


This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.


Moderation Rules:

  1. We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
  2. This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
  3. No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
  4. Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
  5. Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
  6. Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
  7. News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
  8. Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
  9. No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
  10. No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
  11. Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
  12. General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.

Additional Resources:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I find that I need a security camera for my back yard. Do you folks recommend any particular makes & models? It should avoid the cloud but record locally. I'm somewhat handy with Linux and a RaspberryPi, if that helps.

Thanks!

top 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Any IP camera that supports the onvif standard. Chinese Dahau and Hisense have amazing image quality but do not trust them. Block their Mac address at your router and you'll be fine.

I really like Power over Ethernet IP cameras because it's one cable for power and data. If it's only one camera you buy a POE injector so you plug in power where it's convenient and run Ethernet (that also delivers power) to the camera. For multiple cameras, get a POE switch. On the software side, DWSpectrum, Frigate, or Shinobi for Linux. If you want it to work without any hassle, BlueIris for Windows is great.

The Dahau and Hisense cameras I've used have their own recording capabilities so you can get by without even a Linux PC running Network Video Recording software like I listed above.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not interested, for numerous reasons, in anything produced by or in China.

I really like the concept of PoE cameras for the same reasons. Given where they'll be installed, I'd rather only climb onto the roof or into attic crawlspaces once. :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You should know that many, if not all US "made" cameras are only rebranded Chinese cameras.

For example Amcrest of Texas is actually owned by the Chinese Foscam and sells rebranded Dahau cameras. Reolink is also Chinese. Even premium US companies like Ubiquity have their cameras made in China.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Yes, I know it's difficult to impossible to avoid China in this domain. That won't stop me trying. :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Check out ReoLink cameras; you can set them up and use them fully locally.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Be aware that some only work with neolink in between. I have some B800 cams and the picture is phenomenal, but I have to use neolink and h265.

I moved to Amcrest. Much more open, the api is documented, and h264.

Oh, and frigate NVR

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Amcrest is a new one to me. Thanks for the suggestion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a hard time trusting a company that appears to try to hide its country of origin. And I'm not interested in anything made by a Chinese company.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

May or may not be an option for you but buy any camera that supports rtsp, only allow that traffic from their network through and block everything else. Works fine for me and my Amcrest cameras. You could accomplish this with a pi and a USB network card and some basic iptables.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the suggestion. Amcrest is a new one to me. I'll check them out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Been looking for one myself & I’ve been reading pretty good things about amcrest cams. Still need to do a bit of research before I make any purchases, but I’m leaning towards amcrest bc seems to check most of my boxes for privacy reasons.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Amcrest is a new one for me. Doing more research, but thanks for the suggestion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Pine64 makes a security camera for use with a (included?) Raspberry Pi, iirc

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I'll check them out. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Check out thingino. Its a great fully open source project for privacy respecting firmware for ip cameras (unlike other alternatives) and a really helpful bunch of devs.

Might fit you well since you mention youre good with linux

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

This is neat! Thanks for the tip

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I add OpenIPC for great FOSS firmware too

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I used to use openipc (that was the "alternative" i was referring to") but its not truly FOSS. Their default streamer is hidden behind closed doors and theyve also taken some contributions and added it to majestic never to be seen in the open again. You cant be sure what theyre doing there.

That said, it is a great alternative if you dont have ingenic based cameras. And they apparently now offer minimal other open source options for streamers...

Some of the key devs left and created thingino because of the whole foss thing. Imo theyre a much friendlier bunch too but thats purely an opinion

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I totally agree with you. I asked on Telegram why Majestic was closed source and I was insulted in Russian. To date I still don't know why they do that.

I am still using OpenIPC. I don't see any outgoing connection (but I've also disabled internet access to it via firewall just to be sure)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Thats awful... but im not surprised. I witnessed similar when i used to contribute.

In any case i hate that theyre like this because there is a need for truly open camera firmware but their attitude makes me not even want to mention or recommend them. Especially not as a fully or truly FOSS solution

Thingino devs are bros and do it purely for the foss privacy philosophy. Contributions are encouraged and praised and the support is soo friendly and encouraging

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Another new project to consider. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I've been using a TAPO C200, it just required the initial setup to be connected to the internet to configure via de app, afterwards I blocked the internet traffic at router level, the feed is processed through https://frigate.video/ which I selfhost in a mini PC, not sure how well it'll perform on a PI.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Does that mean you have to allow internet for it again if you want to reconfigure it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

It depends what you need to configure.
I'm using this library to move around the camera https://github.com/JurajNyiri/pytapo
For anything else, AFAIK, yeah, you'd need to re-enable internet access.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Tapo looks promising. If Frigate is too much for the Pi, I have a couple of retired PCs that could be recommissioned. Thanks for the suggestion.